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By Christopher Oji
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, has ordered the tactical and special strike force of the command to go after fabricators of arms in the state.
The CP, who paraded 42 suspected cultists at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, yesterday, identified cultism as one of the major challenges of the command.
He said: “A worrisome component from preliminary investigation in terms of the activities of these cultists is that it appears some of their supporters or network have developed capacity to fabricate semi-automatic and automatic shotguns and some of them are looking exactly like foreign made pistols. So, our investigations are not only focused on members of these networks, but also to get to the root of the fabricators of these dangerous weapons. That is the only way we can mop up arms and make a clear statement that, indeed, we have effectively foiled the current attempt by these cultists. This battle is a common battle, we need all citizens to come on board; and for us at the Command, we have all it takes to sustain this battle. In the course of these anti-cultism operations, we have mopped up and arrested a total of 42 cultists in operations carried out in Ijora, Orile, Ebute-meta and Ikorodu.
“In the course of these operations, a total of 10 firearms of various descriptions were recovered from the cultists, these include: six locally made shotguns, three locally semi-automated pistols, and one English made pistol. Three battle axes, three cutlasses, three daggers, three knives, 13 live cartridges and multiple charms.
“I am, therefore, warning cultists that in line of the promises I made to Lagosians, we will deploy all our operational assets, and we will provide the leadership support that will ensure that the special units of the command sustain this battle against these cultists, who appeared to be determined to threaten the internal security of Lagos, our value for peace and our wish for a stable secured state.
“The Lagos State Command, under my watch, will deny them access in a very forceful way. I am also reassuring Lagosians that the battle to rid Lagos State of cultism and violent criminals has started, and we will not relent until we restore order across the state. So, the cultists and every group that operates under whatever guise, should take this as clear or firm warning. They have an option of changing for better, and get a legitimate means of livelihood or you will have the command and the law to contend with.
“We cannot continue to allow miscreants who are increasingly arming themselves in senseless warfare, under the guise of cultism and inflicting pains on innocent citizens or those who they consider as rival, we cannot sit back and allow this to continue, so we seek the cooperation of the citizens by way of information. I implore them to be proactive by giving intelligence reports; we must present a common front to defeat this common enemy called cultists,” the CP said.
